Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes 9/10
He’s the Graham Greene of pop, disarmingly mixing ‘entertainments’ with serious work. Both use storytelling and titillation to lure you to the precipice of a theological dark place and pause so you can make a choice.
He’s also Springsteen minus writing in the hamming opportunities, if you prefer that route:
Jun 28, 2012 @ 09:18:56
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m much more concerned that Tad Kluber continues to hang around with Craig Finn than Franz Nicolay.
Jun 28, 2012 @ 18:09:21
It’ll be our little secret
Gotta say though that it’d be hard to convince me the personnel of The Hold Steady or Lifter Puller really matter anyway. Not that the players aren’t capable because maybe they are, but those bands existed to gave Craig Finn an ‘acceptable sound’ he needed at the time. What he was writing sounded acceptable in context, so we listened.
His solo debut also sounds acceptably like a maturing rocker, so we listen again.
I like a bit of a John Darnielle (Mountain Goats) comparison here; another philosophical fiction writer who chose music over novels or short stories or whatever. Finn has embraced making listeners comfortable enough in a his ‘rebellious’ sound to accept being really, actually challenged. I think every ‘serious’ singer songwriter rides a divide that way; Finn has mastered it.